AppConfig

AppConfig is a library to manage your (web) application dynamic settings with flexible access and configuration strategy.

Primary datasource for AppConfig is an ActiveRecord model.

Installation

via rubygems:

gem install app-config

via github:

git clone git://github.com/sosedoff/app-config.git
cd app-config
gem build
gem install app-config-x.y.z.gem

Supported platforms

• Ruby 1.8.7

• Ruby REE 1.8.7

• Ruby 1.9.2

Data Formats

You can use following formats:

• String

• Boolean

• Array

• Hash

String format is a default format. Everything is a string by default.

Boolean format is just a flag, values ‘true’, ‘on’, ‘yes’, ‘y’, ‘1’ are equal to True. Everything else is False.

Array format is a multiline text which is transformed into array. Each evelemnt will be trimmed. Empty strings are ignored.

Hash format is special key-value string, “foo: bar, user: username”, which is transformed into Hash instance. Only format “keyname: value, keyname2: value2” is supported. No nested hashes allowed.

Usage

AppConfig is designed to work with ActiveRecord model. Only ActiveRecord >= 3.0.0 is supported.

By default model “Setting” will be used as a data source.

Default migration:

class CreateSettings < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
    create_table :settings do |t|
      t.string   :keyname,       :null => false, :limit => 64
      t.string   :name,          :null => false, :limit => 64
      t.text     :value,         :null => false
      t.string   :value_format,  :limit => 64,  :default => "string"
      t.string   :description,   :limit => 512, :null => false
      t.timestamps
    end
  end

  def self.down
    drop_table :settings
  end
end

Now, configure:

AppConfig.configure

If your settings model has a different schema, you can redefine columns:

AppConfig.configure(
  :model  => Setting,           # define your model as a source
  :key    => 'KEYNAME_FIELD',   # field that contains name
  :format => 'FORMAT_FIELD',    # field that contains key format
  :value  => 'VALUE_FIELD',     #field that contains value data
)

Load all settings somewhere in your application. In Rails it should be initializer file.

AppConfig.load

Configuration in Rails 3: (you can put this into environment/ENV or application.rb) Make sure your application does not have any critical parts depending on AppConfig at startup.

config.after_initialize do
  AppConfig.configure(:model => Setting)
  AppConfig.load if Setting.table_exists?
end

AppConfig gives you 3 ways to access variables:

AppConfig.my_setting      # method-like
AppConfig[:my_setting]    # hash-like by symbol key
AppConfig['my_setting']   # hash-like by string key

You can define settings items manually. NOTE: THESE KEYS WILL BE REMOVED ON RELOAD/LOAD.

AppConfig.set('KEYNAME, 'VALUE', 'FORMAT')

Everytime you change your settings on the fly, use reload:

AppConfig.reload

Cleanup everything:

AppConfig.flush

Copyright

Copyright © 2011 Dan Sosedoff.